Food Hygiene Rating for Businesses

Good food hygiene is getting easier to spot – a good food hygiene rating can help you keep your customers.

How to get the top food hygiene rating

All business should be able to achieve the top rating.

To achieve this, you must be able to demonstrate very good compliance with legal requirements for food hygiene.

The level of compliance will be assessed by the food safety officer when your business is inspected.

How is this assessed?

Your food hygiene rating is based on the level of compliance in three areas:

Handling food hygienically

You can demonstrate you handle food hygienically by showing, for example, that:

  • there are high standards of personal hygiene of staff – eg clean over clothing (such as aprons), appropriate headwear, minimal jewellery and regular and appropriate hand-washing
  • control measures in place to prevent cross contamination – eg use of separate areas and/or equipment for handling raw and cooked foods, proper use of colour coded chopping boards, and correct use of appropriate cleaning chemicals
  • foods are stored at the correct temperature – eg food stored in fridges is maintained at less than 8°C and that the chill chain is protected
  • foods are properly cooked, re-heated and cooled – eg foods are cooked to 75°C or hotter and are checked visually for signs of thorough cooking, and foods are cooled quickly and as necessary refrigerated

Condition and structure of the premises

There should, for example, be:

  • a suitable structure which is clean and in good repair throughout the premises
  • adequate natural/artificial lighting
  • adequate natural/artificial ventilation
  • a structure proofed against pest entry

Managing and documenting what you do to make sure food is safe

It is a legal requirement for food businesses to provide documentary evidence that the food they produce is safe. This should:

  • identify and show an understanding of the food safety hazards (microbiological, physical and chemical) within the business
  • provide evidence that measures have been taken to effectively control these hazards and that these measures are reviewed as appropriate
  • provide evidence that all food handlers are supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters in order that they produce food that is safe to eat

The Food Standards Agency has produced systems to help create a documented food safety management system – Safer Food - Better Business FSA - (external website) or Safe catering FSA - (external website).

These are suitable for many types of food business, but not all.

You are advised to discuss which food safety management system is suitable for your business with one of our food safety officers at:

The Food Safety Team
Level 4 - Alexandra House 
10 Station Road 
Wood Green
N22 7TR

Tel 020 8489 1335

For general enquiries, please use our web form:

Make a general enquiry

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Top tips for a 5 rating

These tips are based on our officers findings when inspecting businesses with a 5 rating. The tips represent good practice in interpreting the law in a workable way, and are the areas where businesses often fail at inspection, and therefore fail to get a 5 rating. The tips do not cover every eventuality, and should be followed with the good hygiene practice provided elsewhere.

Food Safety inspections cover five areas (as applicable to your business). These are:

Following the tips in each of these areas should help improve your hygiene rating.

Reduce cross-contamination

  • Keep your wash basin clean, provided with hot and cold water and have soap and preferably disposable paper towels available to dry hands
  • Food handlers must wear clean and washable over-clothing
  • Don't leave equipment or cleaning implements in your washbasin. Leave it clear and available for use and use it when necessary, especially after handling raw vegetables and raw meat or after touching knives and boards used to prepare these. Wash hands frequently
  • Emerging concern over the risks of E.coli 0157 is leading to an increasing need to have systems in place to avoid cross contamination between handling raw food (raw meat and unwashed salad/vegetables) and Ready To Eat (RTE) food (cooked meat, prepared salad, anything to be eaten without further treatment)

Systems in use include:

  • Separate colour coded chopping boards and knives for raw and RTE food
  • Separate colour coded cloths for washing equipment used for raw and RTE food
  • Separate areas for preparing raw and RTE foods (for example having a 'raw foods only' area)
  • Separate times for handling raw and RTE food
  • Separate fridges for raw and RTE foods
  • Separate vacuum packing machines for raw and RTE foods
  • Separate weighing scales/food slicers for raw and RTE foods
  • Separate designated sink for food use
  • Separate clean over-clothing for handling raw and RTE food
  • Use of disposable cloths for
    • a. wiping down surfaces as part of clean-as-you-go, and
    • b. wiping down after full cleaning and disinfection of surfaces/equipment

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Keep the kitchen and equipment visibly clean

  • Wash and then disinfect all boards, tables, knives and containers that come into contact with RTE food
  • Only use disinfectant/sanitiser that meets BS 1276/13697
  • Clean-as-you-go, preferably using disposable paper towels and not cloths
  • Identify things people touch frequently - surfaces, taps, handles, boards, and knives and clean and disinfect them frequently
  • Follow your cleaning schedule!

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Keep chilled food safe

  • Check use by dates, cover all food, date code with stickers and aim for a fridge air temperature of 5C on the opening check
  • Store raw food separately and below RTE if a separate fridge is not available
  • Keep a fridge thermometer in each fridge and compare its accuracy with your probe thermometer at least every three months (see below)
  • If you cool food, cool it down as quickly as possible in an area away from raw food, and place in the fridge within 90 minutes

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Cook, re-heat and hot hold to the correct temperature

  • Be clear about how you check that food is properly cooked or reheated. One way is to use a disinfected probe thermometer each time to check the food has reached 75C for 30 seconds. If you don't check with a probe thermometer each time you cook, you must choose other methods of checking. These could include:
    • Splitting meat to check for inner colour change (sausages/burgers), or boiling and simmering liquids (soup, gravy, sauce). These checks can tell you the food is safely cooked/reheated without the need for checks with a probe thermometer
    • If you are checking the time taken to cook/reheat in a preheated oven or a microwave you must have a record of when you measured the temperature with a probe thermometer and the time taken to reach 75C or above. In Safer Food Better Business this is recorded as a Prove it Record. This method is commonly used for pies reheated in a microwave, chicken cooked in a fryer, sausage/fish cooked in a frying range, cottage pie/beef/chicken/pork cooked in a preheated oven
  • Keep your probe thermometer in good working order. Carry out a calibration check in boiling water (100C) and melting ice (0C), at least every 3 months and keep a record of the temperature checks
  • If you intend to hot hold food, once it has been cooked or reheated (to 75C or above) it must be kept at 63C or above. Always keep a thermometer in hot displays and check daily that the air temperature is kept over 63C, and carry out occasional checks (eg weekly) that the food temperature is above 63C using your disinfected probe thermometer. Also use a disinfected probe thermometer for daily checks that food in a Bain Marie is over 63C

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Documented food safety management system

  • Make sure you have fully completed and updated your documented system. Only businesses with completed and up to date systems get a top rating
  • Make sure you complete a diary every day to show you are carrying out opening and closing checks and recording any problems. If there are any gaps this may count against you

If you intend to use the 'Safer Food Better Business' pack (PDF, 2MB) as your documented food safety management system, follow the Management guidance from page 63 of the document.

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Appeals and re-assessments

In order to ensure that the scheme is fair to businesses, it has been designed to include a number of safeguards. These are:

  • An appeal procedure
  • A ‘right to reply’ procedure
  • A re-visit procedure to re-assess for a ‘new’ rating - revisit cost is £270.60

Information for food businesses about these different safeguards is provided in the attached files section below.

To request a re-visit to the premises, please complete  Food Hygiene Rating Scheme: Request for re-visit (PDF, 130KB)

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Page last updated:

July 6, 2023